Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

I haven't heard the hybrids, but my JoLida 502B with Svetlana KT88s, Tungsram 12AX7s, and Westinghouse 12AT7s sounds pretty damn good through my Kestrel Hot Rods. By the way, I used to be a solid state fan...no more.

Mg just curious how much were the Svetlana the Tungsram the Westinghouse? i've heard good on all 3 So looks like Marakanetz had the right word here, get good tubes. BUT how much are they? You may have hit on something here. In order to get these high quality tubes in a amp you may have to spend alot more. In other words get the Jolida then get good tubes and there you have it a good sounding amp at a great price. But then you are in Kora and others price range which becomes a matter of : does the better tubes in your unit overtake the better electronics in the others. If that makes any sense.???

BULLSEYE!!!

I always know that I have made my point whenever the free speech Red Herring swims by in a post. I had actually though that I was exercising my freedom of speech to push back on those prefer to raising their vituperation to actual experience index as high as possible rather than be helpful to other Audiogoners.

At least we now have your entry on the circa $600 price point for integrated amps. I spent some time poking around Audio Asylums 200 recent posts on Jolida. Many of the positive posts are from folks who have had extensive personal experience, as do I, with multi kilo-buck amps. In “FACT” most of those posts were positives although there does seem to be two confirmed cases of units that went up in flames (In those cases always adjust the bias for the lightest color of smoke as my old engineering prof used to say).

From Audio Asylum I garnered the recommendation of Acoustic Zen. So know I’m going to get one of those and find a Kora Explorer, and although out of the price range a Rogue. I’ll report back on my ACTUAL experience against the 302 and 502 in a month or two.

It does seem from your most recent post that you are a little more flexible that the earlier posts might indicate. Two data points, because there are so many Jolida units available from people who did tube rolling it is possible to get a used unit with very decent tubes. Second data point, a tube amp without tubes is not worthless. If you own a tube amp that you like, sooner or later you will have to retube. At this point your amp is hardly worthless.

One of my first exposures to tube power amps was a basic 1703 integrated amp with only one input!. But, for a mere $750.00 it is a rare find!. And it actually utilizes an alps potentiometer(volume control). It weighs about 37lbs and has a massive power supply!. However, the revelation and the soundstage depth and width were nothing short of exhilirating! To describe its engaging qualities would not be enough , no matter how many adjectives one used. A true bargain, no matter how you look at it. Rolls Royce build at wholesale bargain asking prices!..Bravo Jolida!!

approximately 10 years ago i went to the jolida "factory" near columbia,MD in search of EL-34 tubes for my guitar amp and found jolida to be a place that unpacked asian, no-name integrated amplifiers in straw cushioned cheap boxes and did some tricky labeling. i was given a tour of the whole works and after seeing the entire deal was told i could purchase a system for what i would calculate to being %500 markup.

i don't know who engineered the electronics but it doesn't take much to get a good sound out of a tube stereo amp versus solid state. i am an electronics tech.